In the flow – Jon Erickson, who’s led the Barnstable Fire District Water Department for the past 25 years, has retirement on tap for next June “if all goes well.”

Erickson looks to retire next June

For the past 25 years, Jon Erickson has helped ensure residents of the Barnstable Fire District have had safe, clean water, and enough of it.

The northside village will have about one more year of his service before he retires.

The actual date has not been set, but the rough target is at the close of the fiscal year in June 2013.

Erickson came to the Cape at a time when it was a less expensive alternative than living in the Avon and Brockton area, which he and then-fiancé, now wife, called home.

“Those were different times,” he recalled this week.

It was an opportunity with Sears-Roebuck that brought him over the bridge, though he was familiar with the ride, as his grandparents lived in Hyannis. He was working for he company in Brockton when he was asked if he wanted to move to the Cape as a manager in the new auto service center at the Cape Cod Mall.

That was 1971 and it was a different time on Cape Cod. Erickson moved to West Yarmouth, where he and his wife stayed, raised a family and still live today.

He said when you hear old-timers talk about pulling in the sidewalks and closing shop after Labor Day, believe them.

“That’s just what it was like,” Erickson said. “You could stand on Route 28, look both ways and never see a car. Ever.”

What that meant is that good-paying year-round work was tough to come by, as retailers, restaurants, hotels and other summertime employers shut down.

“I was fortunate enough to be with a big, national company,” he said.

A few years later he changed careers, taking a job with the Yarmouth Water Department. He said the superintendent saw potential in him, and he was serving as Yarmouth’s acting superintendent when he applied for the position in Barnstable Village.

Recently retired Fire Chief Robert Crosby was among those who hired Erickson in 1987 as a member of the board of water commissioners. Lauchie Crocker was also on the board, in the final third of his 45 years of service.

Such longevity of service to the district, both in elected officials and employees, is something of a hallmark. Erickson is just the third superintendent since the water department was established in 1935.

When he was hired, Erickson represented 50 percent of the staff, along with George Weir, who “held down the fort” on an interim basis. Meters were read in person, hand-written into the log book, then transferred for billing purposes. Meters were read once a year and took the better part of a month.

With the installation of a SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system, meter reading reached the digital age, and takes two to three days. Erickson said that it’s now done twice a year.

Staffing now? “One more than what it was in 1987,” Erickson said.

He’s looking to the end of the next fiscal year to take his leave, but that’s only if a replacement has been found. The water commissioners retained a search firm to find the next superintendent.

He understands that well-paying year-round jobs on Cape Cod remain at a premium, and if he can leave at a time where he’s comfortable and allow someone else the opportunity for advancement, he’s interested in making that happen.

“Hopefully the domino effect will take over,” he said.

When a new superintendent is found, he or she will walk into a relatively new and modern system.

Along with the new well, the district’s other three wells have all been refurbished over the past few years, Erickson said.

An electronic meter reading system is in place, and plans are in the works to replace its storage tank #1.

Know the Village and its People

So what’s it take to do the job? Beyond the technical qualification, Erickson believes it is important to understand and appreciate the village and its residents.

“You’ve also got to have the ability to feel the pulse ... of the village,” which is something Erickson believes he can feel.

“One of the biggest accomplishments that I can honestly say is that I've earned the respect of the district village inhabitants,” Erickson said, adding that he’s appreciated “the trust they've had in me to run their water department.”

It’s trust that he’s earned in building a modern system, but also in acting to protect its users when necessary.

The Cape’s ideal groundwater conditions, with sandy soils that filter the rain, also make ideal conditions for contaminants. That’s something Erickson learned the hard way just two years into the job.

Typical of his style, Erickson recalled the events that led to the shutdown of one of the district’s three wells on March 15, 1989.

“I don't think it's fair to drag up old things like that,” he said.

The company was Cape Cod Potato Chips, which was then owned by Eagle Snacks, a division of Anheuser Busch. As part of a testing regimen for the cooking oil, small amounts of chloroform were used, then discarded down the drain and into the septic system. This eventually got into the groundwater and the district’s well #2.

In a meeting with company officials, Erickson said that after a presentation of the costs, “Mr. Busch said, ‘Clean it up.’”

And that’s what happened, without protected legal maneuvers or resistance.

The cleanup of what the company estimated was about four gallons of chloroform cost millions of dollars and kept Well #2 out of operation for nearly two decades. It is back in operation and set to be joined by the district’s new Well #4.

More recently, Erickson and the department were tested again. Almost as the ink on the district’s emergency response plan had dried in 2010, Erickson had to put it to use, as e. coli and coliform bacteria was detected in one of the storage tanks.

“A boil water order is one thing I don't wish on anyone,” Erickson said. “It’s disruptive to the community.”

The boil order lasted five days

An abundance of migrating birds got through the screened venting system and did their business in the water.

Despite his preference not to chlorinate, Erickson said that public health and safety of the customers almost dictated that it continue.

“I don’t like it, but it’s in the best interest to do it,” he said.

In 1993, the Barnstable Fire District almost bought the Hyannis Golf Club, which is home to one of its supply wells. Erickson and the board of water commissioners saw the opportunity for more. The initial tally of the paper ballot announced at a special district meeting at Cape Cod Community College, showed that the district bought the property and golf operation. A recount back at the district offices to certify the vote told a different story, and the second tally held.

“That has to be one of the biggest disappointments in my tenure here,” Erickson said of the failed acquisition of the golf course. “I looked at that as an infinite amount of future water supply.”

“At least it's in a municipal hand... better than having it go to a private concern,” Erickson said.

Of course, that same municipal hand has some sewer disposal designs on land adjacent to the golf course, action that the Barnstable Fire District Water Department is actively opposing.